Sunday, August 24, 2014

Sermon on the Mount

The Sea of Galilee and the Mt. of Beatitudes (the small hill at center
right, just to the right of the area with the tall green trees by the water).

I think you
would agree with me that the world is a mess right now. I ran across the statistic this week that
there are conflicts going on in all the countries of the world except eleven! That’s terrible. And
some of these are truly horrific, like what is happening in Iraq and Syria with
ISIS (or IS). How does Jesus want us to
respond to times like these?

Jesus said, “These things I have spoken to you that in
me you may have peace. In the world you
have tribulation; but be courageous, I have conquered the world!” (John
16:33). Jesus didn’t paint a flowery
picture for us of life in this world. He
said very clearly that life in the world includes tribulation. And by the way, he didn’t say we “will” have tribulation
as some translate this verse, which gives the impression that tribulation is
something off in the distant future. No,
he used a simple present tense: “you have tribulation.” And it’s been happening ever since right up
until today. That’s the condition of
life in this world. But in spite of all
these troubles, in him we have peace.
Why? Because he has conquered the
world.

Some
translate this, ‘I have overcome the world.’
But this word ‘overcome’ can imply that you have just barely made it through
a problem. ‘I overcame my addiction to
sleeping pills,’ or something like that.
‘I overcame my reliance on credit card debt.’ I fought it out, and I just barely made it
over my problem. And I’m really hoping I
don’t have that problem again. But this
is not the meaning of what Jesus said in this verse. The word used here in Greek is the verb form
of the Greek word nike, just like the
popular running shoe, Nike. And what
does this mean? Victory! It’s the picture of a conqueror having total victory
over his enemy. When Jesus says, “I
have conquered the world,” he means that he has had absolute victory over
the world. In spite of all the things he
suffered, he won! And if he won, if he
had the victory, we can, too. As Paul
put it, “in all these things we are
completely victorious” or “we totally conquer” (Rom. 8:37).

That’s why Jesus
says to us, “Be courageous.” The Christian life is not easy. It takes courage to be a Christian. But why are we able to be courageous? Because Jesus had the victory! He has conquered the world! And that means that we, too, can win, in
spite of all the difficult things we go through. We, too, can have a total victory over the
world!

As Paul said
in his letter to the Romans: “Do not be conquered by what is evil (or the
evil one), rather conquer (nika) what is evil with what is good” (Rom.
12:21). In this section, he’s talking
about doing good to our enemies. “But rather if your enemy is hungry, feed
him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by doing this you heap
up coals of fire on his head” (Rom. 12:20).
You have victory over your enemy by doing good to him, even when he is
doing evil to you. Why? Because your good actions expose his actions
as evil. And this will result in his
eternal condemnation if he does not repent.
When we show mercy or kindness to our enemies, we are having victory
over their evil. We are conquering their
evil with our good. I’m not saying this
is easy to do. But this is what we’re
called to do. It’s what Jesus wants to
help us do.

For us to develop
this attitude toward the world and the things of the world, we’ve got to get
some things straightened out in our minds that many people, including many
Christians, are confused about. For
example, which of these do most people—even most Christians—think is
better? Being strong in spirit or weak
in spirit? I think we would all like X-men
super powers, wouldn’t we? Everyone
wants to be strong, right? Maybe you’ve even
heard atheists attack Christians recently by saying, ‘I don’t need an imaginary
playmate.’ What are they saying? They’re saying that they’re so spiritually
strong, they don’t need God. Wow. That’s what many people really think. They don’t want to admit any weakness. And as a result, they have no place in their
lives for God.

Or how do we
deal with difficulties and even tragedies in our lives? Do we allow ourselves to mourn, to weep, to
express our sorrow; or do we try to stop ourselves from being touched by sorrow
or grief? Do we build a hard shell around
ourselves against the world?

Which do we
value more, being tough or being gentle?
It seems everybody wants to be tough these days. Everybody wants to be a martial arts champion. Everybody wants others to get out of their way,
beeping their horn at the intersection: me
first, me first.

Do we go
with the flow—after all, ‘everybody else is doing it’; or do we want what’s
right and fair instead?

Do we show no
mercy, or are we merciful? What do we
learn from war movies, fighting movies, horror movies, video games? “Show no mercy.”

Do we think that
having a pure heart is important? Or do
we laugh at the idea, thinking that “no one is perfect”? It seems that many can’t even imagine that
someone could have a pure heart.

Do we value
being a fighter, not backing down, not giving in in a conflict; or making
peace?

What about
this: Do we value not making waves, not
making “trouble”; or do we stand up for what’s right, even if there are consequences: serious consequences like losing your job, or
even losing something more valuable than that?
Which is more valuable to us? I’m
not talking here about being violent, but about being a witness of the truth, about
speaking up, and calling for what’s right to be done.

Do we value
more enduring insults, or getting revenge?
What’s in a typical martial arts movie?
The main character prepares his whole life to get revenge. Right?

But how does
God look at these things? Which of them does
he say will give us victory over the world?
Jesus answered all these questions in a beautiful teaching on a hill right
by the Sea of Galilee. Today we call it
the Mt. of Beatitudes. It’s a small hill with a small cave half way up the
side and a rock at the top. The people sat
above Jesus on the slope of the hill, with a beautiful view down to where he sat
and the Sea of Galilee behind him.

But don’t be
fooled by the peaceful view. On one side
in the mountains were zealots living in caves getting ready for a war against
Rome. On the other side was a Roman
garrison, with soldiers marching around, sometimes going past on the road right
below where they were sitting. Beyond
that was a zealot city, the home base for those who were getting ready for
war. There was political tension and occasional
fighting. Not to mention that Jesus
himself was soon to be killed. So how
did he teach us to have victory in difficult times like these?

Matt.
5:3: “Blessed
are the poor in spirit, for of them is the kingdom of the heavens.” That was an unexpected teaching. In the culture of the time, those who were
spiritually weak were despised (John 7:49).
For them, just like for us, everyone wanted to be strong in spirit. But Jesus says that the way to God is just
the opposite.

For some
reason, this verse is often translated, “for theirs is the kingdom of the
heavens,” implying that the kingdom of God belongs to the poor in spirit. But actually what it says is “of them is the kingdom,” that is, that the
kingdom of God is made up of people like these.
The people in the kingdom are people who are poor in spirit.

Wow, you
mean I don’t have to be a spiritual superstar to get into the kingdom of
heaven? I don’t have to be a strong and
independent person to be right with God?
Absolutely not. This is a kingdom
of people who know their weakness, who know their frailty, and who know they
absolutely need a loving God. They know
they’re not going to make it without him.
As Paul put it, “When I am weak,
then I am strong” (2 Cor. 12:10). How
can that be? Because when I admit my
weakness, I get out of the way and let God be God. And then God can move in our lives. As Jesus said when he faced his difficulties,
“Not my will, but yours be done” (Luke
22:42). The more we understand how weak
we really are, the more room there is for God in our lives. The poor, the weak, the humble in
spirit: these are the kind of people you
will find in the kingdom of God. But those
who refuse to admit any weakness or any need for God won’t be there. And how could they? Because by rejecting God’s help in their
lives, they are also rejecting God himself.

As God said,
speaking through Isaiah, “I dwell...with
the contrite and humble of spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to
revive the heart of the crushed” (Isaiah 57:15). You want to know where God is? Look among the lowly people of the world, not
the proud and arrogant. Look at those
who know they need God. These are the
truly wise. And God is with them,
especially when difficult things happen to them. Because the word translated “revive” here
also means to “keep alive”: he doesn’t
just restore them after difficult things have happened, but he is also right
there with them through those difficult things, keeping their spirits
alive.

Matt.
5:4: “Blessed
are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” Sure, we like to seem strong, to make it look
like we’re not affected by any emotion.
But there is no spiritual benefit in that. We may think it looks good. But when we’re feeling hurt and broken inside,
we need to let our emotions express themselves.
And when we allow ourselves to grieve, God will comfort us. Without mourning, how will we receive God’s comfort
for our sorrows? How will we receive
more of God in our lives? Trying to keep
a stiff upper lip and control our emotions just keeps us from receiving God’s tremendous
comfort in the difficult things we go through.

Matt. 5:5: “Blessed
are the gentle, for they will inherit the earth.” Don’t we often think that it’s the warlike that
will inherit the earth? It certainly
looks like that sometimes. But in the
long run, the violent and vicious die young, and lose everything. As Jesus said, “All those who take up the sword will perish by the sword” (Matt.
26:52). The violent will experience
violence. But in the end, those who are gentle will
inherit the earth. Why? Because these are the kind of people in God’s
kingdom. And the people in his kingdom
will rule and reign with him—maybe not now at the present time, but very soon,
when he comes.

Matt. 5:6: “Blessed
are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.” What does it mean to hunger and thirst for
righteousness? It means that you’re not
satisfied with anything less than what’s right.
And of course, if you’re hungry and thirsty for something, you’re going
to seek it out. You’re going to try to
find it. You’re going to look everywhere
for it. Because you’re hungry for that
and nothing else. If you hunger for
righteousness, you will get closer and closer to righteousness. And Jesus said
you will one day be satisfied.

Matt. 5:7: “Blessed
are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.” As Jesus said, the way you measure it out is
the way it will be measured to you (Matt. 7:2).
This is true of many things, and mercy is one of them. If you extend mercy, you will receive
mercy. Why? Because this is the kind of person in God’s
kingdom. And God extends mercy to his
people.

Matt. 5:8: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will
see God.” I remember when I was
young, I purposely tried to tarnish my heart.
I didn’t want people to think I was a goody-goody type of guy. I wanted to be bad like other people. I sought it out. And of course it took me further and further
from God and from good. Today, purity is
something people laugh at and spit on.
They seek corruption and glory in corruption and in corrupting other
people. But these are not the kind of
people who will see God. Who will see
God? The pure, the clean, the innocent.

But what if our hearts have been corrupted and made
unclean? Is there any hope for us? If we turn to God, God will give us a new
heart—a completely pure heart. He can
turn us completely around from seeking evil to seeking good and purity.

Matt. 5:9: “Blessed
are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.” The Muslims have gotten pretty messed up on
this one. They think they are serving
God by making war on people and killing people.
Of course, they weren’t the first ones to come up with this idea. Christian armies were doing similar things long
before there were any Muslims—and also since then. But these are not the kind of people that
Jesus says will be called sons of God.
The real sons of God are the ones who seek peace and who make
peace. This is the heart of God . Not war.

What about
defending yourself? Is this permitted by
God? Of course we should resist evil (1
Pet. 5:9). But there are good and bad
ways of doing this. We must resist
without becoming evil ourselves, without imitating evil. Force is not itself evil. When the teacher breaks up a fight between
two students, the teacher is restoring peace by using force or the threat of
force. Force or power is not necessarily
opposed to peace. It just depends on how
you use that force or power and the details of the situation. The goal of your actions should be to restore
peace, not to destroy your enemies.

Matt. 5:10: “Blessed
are those persecuted because of righteousness, for of them is the kingdom of
the heavens.” These are the kind of
people in the kingdom: those who have
been persecuted because of doing what’s right and seeking what’s right. And their reward is great. “Blessed
are you when they reproach you and persecute you and say every evil thing
against you because of me. Rejoice and
be glad, for your reward in the heavens is great; for in the same way they persecuted
the prophets who were before you” (Matt. 5:11,12).

What is
Jesus saying? Instead of responding in
kind, instead of seeking revenge, instead of getting angry and upset when we
are persecuted, what should we do?
Rejoice! You really have to hold
life lightly to have this point of view.
Just think of all those Christians being persecuted right now in Iraq,
their children being killed. What does
Jesus say? Blessed are you! Your reward is great. How can he say that to them, when they are
suffering so much? Because he has
victory over death. And so do all those
that love him. Those Christian kids that
were killed in Iraq have total victory over death.
Yes, evil people can come and take our lives away. But that does not remove our victory. Our victory is complete in Jesus. They can kill us, but they can’t take away
our lives or our reward. As Jesus put
it, “Everyone who lives and believes in
me will certainly not die for eternity” (John 11:26). They can kill us, but we will still be
alive. We will still have victory.

Does that
mean we want evil to happen to us? Of
course not. We want a peaceful,
wonderful life on a peaceful, wonderful earth.
We also want to help other people have good lives. But there’s evil in this world, real
evil. So how should we respond? Our response to evil should not be fear and
terror. If we respond that way, we are
giving the enemy the victory. Instead, we
must remember that we are the true victors, no matter what they do to us. We must not give in to fear, but trust in
God.

As Jesus put
it, we should rejoice and be glad—yes even in the face of persecution. Why?
Because this world will not continue this way much longer. And the day for rewards is coming. And those rewards are eternal rewards. This is how Jesus himself was able to live a fearless
life. He valued eternity more that the
terrible things that happened to him.
They did their worst to him, but he remained victorious, from beginning
to end.

Matt. 5:13: “You
are the salt of the earth; but if the salt becomes tasteless, what will it be
salted with? It is good for nothing
anymore except to be thrown out and trampled on by people.” Who is the salt of the earth? You, the people he’s been talking about, the
people that are in the kingdom of God.

What does he
mean by salt of the earth? What does
salt do? It’s a taste enhancer, as well
as a preservative. We help preserve the
world through our lives and our testimony.
When we Christians are removed from the earth, which will happen one day,
there will be nothing to preserve the earth anymore, and its destruction will
follow.

But what
happens if Christians lose their distinct flavor? What happens when we lose our testimony to
the world and become like everyone else, when Christian denominations stop
standing up against sin? Then their
testimony is of no value anymore. As
Jesus himself said, they have become worthless.

Matt. 5:14: “You
are the light of the world; it’s impossible to hide a city set on a mountain.”
Who is the light of the world? The people he’s been talking about, the kind
of people in the kingdom of God. We can
compare this to the rabbis’ saying: “the
Temple is the light of the world.” That
may have been the case at one time, but now, we are the light of the world. We are a city on a hill, where it’s obvious
for all to see. People are looking at
that city to see what we will do.

Matt. 5:15: “nor do
they light a lamp and place it under a bucket, but on a lampstand, and it gives
light to all who are in the house.” You
don’t hide a light. That’s not its
purpose. In the same way, we are not meant
to be hidden as believers, but to spread God’s light everywhere.

Matt. 5:16: “In the
same way, let your light shine before people, that they may see your good deeds
and glorify your Father in the heavens.” When people see us do what’s right, it touches
them; it shows them that there is a God in heaven.

Then Jesus
said, “Do not suppose that I came to
abolish the Law or the Prophets” (Matt. 5:17a). Jesus wanted to make it very clear that what
he was teaching was not in opposition to the Law and Prophets, which is the
Jewish way to say the Old Testament. “I did not come to abolish, but to fill
them” (Matt. 5:17b). Instead he came
to fill or to fulfill the Old Testament, to reveal its true meaning, and to
fulfill its prophecies.

Matt. 5:18: “For amen
I say to you all , until the heaven and earth pass away, a single letter or a single stroke will
certainly not pass away from the Law until all comes to pass.” Where do all the prophecies about the future
come from? From the Old Testament. The New Testament just repeats them and
clarifies them. Every word of God will
be fulfilled.

Matt. 5:19a: “Whoever, therefore, looses one of the least
of these commandments and teaches the people in this manner, will be called
least in the kingdom of the heavens.” Unfortunately, the Church did exactly this for
hundreds of years. Jewish Christians
were told that they were not to obey the Law of Moses, exactly the opposite of
what Jesus says here. “But he who obeys and teaches it [even the
least commandment], this one will be called great in the kingdom of the heavens”
(Matt. 5:19b). Here you can see the
importance of our Jewish roots to Jesus.

Matt. 5:20: “For
I say to you, that unless your righteousness is abundantly greater than the scribes
and Pharisees, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.” Look how strongly worded this is. We have to be more righteous than the scribes
and Pharisees! We talked about this a
little before with regard to giving. But
it applies to everything. The New
Testament, the New Covenant comes to bring us closer to God than ever
before. The Old Testament points in the
right direction, it brings people part of the way, but now we actually fulfill
everything the Old Testament was pointing to because of God’s work in our lives
through Jesus. How does this work? Jesus explains it this way:

Matt. 5:21: “You
have heard that it was said to the people of ancient times, ‘You will not
murder’; he who murders is subject to the court.” Where was this from? It was not only in the Law of Moses. It was also in the Laws of Noah, which makes
it a really ancient commandment. In an
earlier teaching, I mentioned that two of the Laws of Noah were the prohibition
of murder and the requirement to establish courts of justice to deal with
murder and other crimes (Gen. 9:6). That’s
what Jesus is talking about here.

In Jesus’
day, the courts to deal with murder had to have twenty-three people in them. That’s how many you needed in a court dealing
with a crime for which the penalty was death.
If it was a lesser offense, you only needed three judges. But for a death penalty case, there had to be
twenty-three people in the court.

Matt. 5:22a: “But I
say to you that everyone who becomes angry with his brother is subject to the
court.” Jesus says it’s not only
when you murder that you deserve a more serious court case, but even when you
become angry. Now this is really
remarkable when you get to know the Middle Eastern personality. Maybe it’s because it’s so hot and
uncomfortable in the desert, but people in the Middle East tend to have pretty
explosive personalities. If they have a
fender bender, a little car accident, the two people will jump out of their
cars, shouting at each other. And of
course, politics is often the same way.
They will get very angry very quickly.
This is what leads to a lot of the fighting in the Middle East. They get angry and then they start
shooting. But Jesus says that it’s not
only murder that’s a serious offense; getting angry is just as serious an offense.

And not only
that: “the one who says to his brother, ‘You airhead,’ is subject to the
Sanhedrin” (Matt. 5:22b). The
Sanhedrin was the highest court in the country.
This is where only the most important trials would be held, trials of
national importance. This is the same
court before which Jesus appeared. According
to Jesus, calling your brother a name like this is that serious. To us, it doesn’t even seem like such a bad
name. But Jesus compares it to a
national emergency. Why? Jesus considers human dignity to be very,
very important. When you call your
brother a name, you put him down, you degrade him.

But not only
that: “the one who says, ‘You fool,’ is subject to the Gehenna of fire”
(Matt. 5:22c). If you call your brother
a fool (or moron, or idiot), this deserves the judgment of the last day, the
punishment for which is eternal fire.
This is something with eternal consequences. Jesus is radically revaluing our
understanding of how we think and talk about one another. And I’ve got to say as I get older, I really
see that unkind words can have permanent damage: permanent damage to people and permanent
damage to relationships. Even things we
don’t think of as so bad can still do damage.
Jesus is teaching us to be very, very careful and kind in our
relationships with people, and especially in our difficult relationships, the
people that are not easy to get along with.
We’re still supposed to treat them with dignity.

Matt. 5:23: “If
therefore you are bringing your gift (your offering) to the altar and there you
remember that your brother has something against you...” Notice the first two words: “If
therefore.” Jesus is connecting this
with the previous teaching about not getting angry and not calling names. Here he’s talking about bringing an offering
to the Temple in Jerusalem. Most people brought
their offerings on crowded festival days, when you had to wait in long lines to
get your turn to present your offering or your sacrifice. So maybe you’ve been standing there for an
hour or two, waiting in line, and suddenly you realize that your brother has
something against you. What should you
do? Now notice very carefully it doesn’t
say that you remember you have something against your brother. No. It
says that you remember that your brother has something against you.

Matt. 5:24: “leave
your gift (your offering) there before the altar, and first go make peace with
your brother, and then come bring your gift.” Now this is a really wonderful
instruction. What does it mean? It means that peace with your brother is more
important to God than your sacrifice:
relationships are more important than religious duties or religious
rituals. And that’s a beautiful message
right there. As John put it, how can you
love God whom you cannot see if you don’t love the brother you can see (1 John
4:20).

But that’s
only a part of the message here. For a
long time, I could never quite get the connection between what Jesus said earlier
about being angry and calling names with this section, even though Jesus clearly
connects the two. So what’s the connection? Have you ever had the experience in reading
the words of Jesus, how does this connect with that? The disciples ask him a question, but his
answer doesn’t seem to connect at all. His
thinking is on such a different plane than ours that sometimes we miss it
altogether. And I missed this one for
years.

So let’s go
back and review. In verse 22, he taught
us that getting angry and calling names are much more serious than we ever
realized. “If therefore...” he says, your
brother has something against you (vs. 23), you should go to him and make peace
(vs. 24). But wait a minute, why are you
going to your brother? He’s the
one that has something against you, not you against him. So that means you’re not the one who might
get angry—he is. So you’re not in
danger of the court or the Sanhedrin or Gehenna as Jesus warned us. You’re fine.
But your brother is not. And
that’s the whole point. He may
get angry at you or call you a name, and because of that be in danger of
all these things. So why do you go to
him? You go to him because you want to
keep him from sinning because of you.
Even though he is the one who’s upset, you care enough about your
brother that you go to him to make it right to keep him from sinning. Do you get it? By doing this, you will save your brother
from committing a great evil. Wow! Suddenly we see how compassionate this
teaching is. You’re willing to face
whatever the trouble was between the two of you to keep your brother from
sinning, and to keep you from being the cause of his sin. It’s a very beautiful teaching. But it’s not the only one like this in this
chapter.

Matt. 5:27: “You have
heard that it was said, ‘You will not commit adultery.’” Where did they hear this? Not only in the Law of Moses, but also in the
Laws of Noah (Gen. 2:24).

Matt. 5:28: “But I say to you, that everyone that looks at
a woman to desire her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” It’s not just the physical act of adultery
that deserves punishment, but even entertaining an adulterous thought in your
mind. Wow! And adultery was considered one of the three
most serious sins in the Bible, with the penalty of death. That means that looking with desire is just
as bad as this very serious sin. Again,
Jesus is showing us that not only our actions, but even our thoughts can have very
serious consequences. Okay, so let’s see
if we can make the connection with the next verse:

Matt. 5:29: “But
if your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away from
you: for it is better for you that one
of the parts of your body be destroyed than for your whole body to be thrown
into Gehenna.” What’s the
connection? If you were using your right
eye to look with adulterous desire, it’s
better for you to get rid of your eye than to commit this very serious
sin. And what about the next verse:

Matt. 5:30: “And if
your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it from you; for it is
better for you that one of the parts of your body be destroyed than for your
whole body to go into Gehenna.” What’s
the connection? I’ll just let you think
about that one yourself. But let’s just say
that as in the last verse, it’s referring to a part of our body being used to
fulfill adulterous desire. These are
things that we must not allow to continue, because the penalty is eternal
fire. This was not a unique teaching to
Jesus. The rabbis also came down hard on
such things. But the point of these
teachings is not to get you to start chopping off parts of your body, but to
get us to realize how important these issues are to God so we can we can stop
them and avoid chopping things off.

Matt. 5:31: “But it
was said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of
divorce.’” Jesus is answering an
objection here to his teaching about adulterous looking. What is the objection? The common teaching of the time was that a
man could divorce his wife for any reason at all, even if he found a prettier
woman. So if he sees a beautiful woman
and desires her, it’s okay because he can just divorce his wife and marry the
other woman. So how does Jesus answer
this objection?

Matt. 5:32: “But I
say to you that anyone divorcing his wife, aside from a matter of sexual immorality,
makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits
adultery.” Jesus permitted divorce
if the wife had committed sexual immorality.
But aside from this one exception, if you divorce your wife for any
other reason, you make her commit adultery.
But why is this? How does the husband
make her commit adultery? What she does
after the divorce is her own decision, not his, right? But it’s difficult for a woman that is
married to stay unmarried. And back in
those days, it was also financially difficult.
So of course, she will want to marry again. But since the divorce is not valid in God’s
eyes, for her to remarry would be to commit adultery. And in the same way, anyone who marries her is
also committing adultery. So Jesus says
that if you do this, you’re causing these great sins to take place. But there is no punishment mentioned in the
Bible for this. Only the people actually
committing adultery are guilty. But just
like with the man whose brother is upset with him, this person is still
responsible.

So what is
Jesus implying here? That even though
there may be some problem between you and your wife that is causing you to
think about divorce, because of your concern for your wife as a human being, and
your concern for her soul, you will not divorce her because you want to prevent
your wife from committing this very serious sin, and to prevent someone else
from committing this serious sin with her.
Wow! Do you see how compassionate
this teaching is? We must be willing to
face whatever the trouble is between ourselves and our spouses because of our
great concern to keep one another from sinning.
It’s actually a very beautiful teaching.
We’ve got to get the focus off of ourselves and onto others. How much do we really care about our brother
or our sister? If we are a follower of
Jesus, we are concerned not just about ourselves, but also about them. What can we do to help them keep from
sinning? How can we live so as not to
become a stumbling block in the life of our brother or sister? Amen?

There’s much
more to Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, but that’s where we’ll stop for today.

Let’s
pray: Father God, we come before you as
imperfect people. You call us to live in
victory over the world. But we still
have areas in our lives where we struggle and fight with the flesh: either with ourselves or others. Father, I pray that you would fill us with
compassion for our fellow human beings more than we are concerned about having
our own way. Help us to admit our
brokenness before you, our imperfection.
Because when we admit our poverty of spirit, that’s when you can come in
and begin to change us. Lord, make us
kind, make us gentle, make us the opposite of this world and the things of this
world. Help our salt to stay salty and
flavorful. And restore purity to our
hearts. And we ask all this in Jesus
name.

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About New Church

Join us at New Church in Taichung, Taiwan! The messages posted here are the Sunday messages shared with the church by Pastor Jeff Harrison. For more information about the church, click on the Church Info or Facebook Group links under the photo at the top of this page. For more information about Jeff, check out the link to his ministry website (To The Ends).